Italian Harlem
Italian Harlem was the name that was given to East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, when it was largely inhabited by an Italian American population.
Today most of the former Italian population is gone, and the neighborhood became known as Spanish Harlem because of its large Hispanic population.
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[edit] History
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a huge wave of immigrants came from Southern Italy and moved to East Harlem. Most were concentrated in the area east of Lexington Avenue between 96th and 116th streets and east of Madison Avenue between 116th and 125th streets. Italian Harlem approached its peak in the 1930s, with over 100,000 Italian-Americans living in its crowded, run-down apartment buildings.[1] Each street had Italians from different regions of Italy, consisting mainly of Sicilians, a broad mixture of other Southern Italians, and a moderate number of Northern Italians. There were many crime syndicates in Italian Harlem from the early Black Hand to the bigger and more organized Italian gangs that formed the Italian-American Mafia. Italian American actor Al Pacino was born in Italian Harlem, moving to the Bronx at the age of two.[2]
Among its most famous residents were Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of New York from 1934 to 1946. In the 1950s and 1960s, large sections of Italian Harlem were leveled for urban renewal projects. The neighborhood retained a large Italian presence through the 1970s. [3]
[edit] Today
Some Italian vestiges remain including a barber shop, a bakery, Patsy's Pizzeria and Rao's restaurant. Most of the Italian American population have long since left and moved to the Bronx and Brooklyn, or into the adjacent state of New Jersey and upper New York. However, a few have remained. Most of these predominantly older residents are clustered around Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, mainly from 114th to 118th Street. There were only 1,130 Italian-Americans still living in this area, according to the 2000 Census.[4]
In May 2011, one of the last remaining Italian retail businesses in the neighborhood, a barbershop owned by Claudio Caponigro on 116th Street, was threatened with closure by a rent increase.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Jackson, Kenneth T., The Encyclopedia of New York City, Yale University Press, 1995, p. 605. "Their number increased slightly during the 1930s, when as many as 110,000 Italians lived east of Lexington Avenue between 96th and 116th streets and east of Madison Avenue between 116th and 125th streets."
- ^ Grobel, Lawrence (2008). Al Pacino. Gallery. p. xix. ISBN 978-1416955566.
- ^ a b Berger, Joseph (11 November 2002). "Sit in This Chair, Go Back in Time; Barber Is Unchanged as Old Neighborhood Vanishes". The New York Times: p. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/11/nyregion/sit-this-chair-go-back-time-barber-unchanged-old-neighborhood-vanishes.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ^ Garland, Sarah. "A Reunion of Little Italy in East Harlem", The New York Times, September 5, 2006. Accessed January 2, 2008. "Now, there are only 1,130 Italian-Americans left in East Harlem, according to the 2000 census."
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 40°47′42.47″N 73°55′59.45″W / 40.7951306°N 73.9331806°W
